I'd like to see real hip-hop threads being created. The whole "Best Rapper Alive" thing is just juvenile and silly.

Be creative in your questions. Here are some examples that would make for good conversation from those who are deeply into hip-hop.

Why do most rappers / emcees avoid freestyling? You could take it a step further and ask of the more successful hip-hop artists, which ones do you feel are the better freestylers?

Which rookies in the rap game today do you feel will be superstars in the future? You could add which once great rappers have recently fallen off in your opinion?

If you're going to ask simple questions such as "who's your favorite rapper" for example, why not be more creative and detailed with it. Why not ask something along the lines of who's your favorite rapper, and what's the best thing they've done in their career and also the worst thing they've done in their career? This adds more value to your question.

When talking about albums, don't just say "what's the best hip-hop album of all time" ... why not ask which hip-hop albums are looked upon as the best by the majority of hip-hop fans, however you feel are not worthy of being there?

I hope this helps spice up the hip-hop conversation around here. No offense guys, but the topics are just too simple for my taste. I apologize if I offended anyone.

freestyling used to be where a rapper had to start...Alot of rappers dont freestyle because they its real hard to make up a story off the top of the dome and still make it rhyme properly... the best ones use groups of words and phrases that rhyme and they just interchange them and change the other words up a bit.. it still off the head, but it always sounds a bit different

writing your raps gives you the ability to be more clever and tell more detailed stories and give better metaphors

I got a question.... Which rapper has the most unique style?

I'll start by saying it is tony starks...when he raps about females, Im saying, that is the most unique thing ive heard in a while...nobody can talk about birds like starks

Freestyling didn't used to be just "off the top" rapping, that is just one type of freestyle. KRS, Chuck D, etc back in the day would drop a lil verse no one had heard and that was a "freestyle". Now most people think of freestyles as that top-of -the-dome stuff. A lot of rappers don't do that cuz - well frankly it's not useful unless you are into battling, and even then everyone knows the best battlers have a repertoir of punchlines waiting in the wings. The Saafir vs Hiero battle was a perfect example - Saafir came mostly written and ate them cats up. I don't think there's a big deal as long as cats don't front like they are doing improv when they going from memory.

I don't think anyone new is really very 'unique'. Kool Keith does his thing, but he old school, while everyone coming out these days owes something to the old school cats like Schooly D, Slick Rick, Rakim, etc

No, I'm talking before 1990 here, when freestyle did not only mean make it up as you go. Originally, that is not what freestyle meant. I realize that's what people usually mean by "freestyle" now, I was only elaborating on why people don't do that as much.